Crimson Sands
by DevilWearsJeans
Summary: The one who hides behind lies and masks has already lost all of his battles. Written for “Rowena DeVandal's One Thousand Words or Less Challenge: July”
1. Dreaming

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs not to me.

A/N:This fic was written for "Rowena DeVandal's One Thousand Words or Less Challenge: July" the main point of the challenge was to write a self-insert OC into the story, but the catch is that the OC must be dead. The author is to explore how canon character(s) would deal with death of someone they "know".

Beta: Mel

* * *

The air was hot and heavy. No wind, not even a slightest blow. Nothing. The endless golden sands went on for miles and disappeared on the horizon.

Here he was again standing in the middle of this goddamned place. The dream came as if on schedule. It would happen one time every year and though it would never repeat until the next year the dream would leave him in pieces for days, sometimes weeks.

Aizen often would wonder why did something that happened more than 200 years ago came back to haunt him. Perhaps he felt guilty that she had died, but then again it really wasn't his fault. Perhaps it was her last words that effected him and like a sharp razor sunk into his mind.

Or maybe it was just a lie and he did in fact feel something for her and now his mind was playing cruel games on him? Maybe this was nothing but a bitter memory that refused to heal and be washed away with time.

He did not know.

He looked around. This place never changed. Always dull, always hot, and always lit by the unmoving sun that lingered in the sky and seemed unnaturally big and bright.

He knew everything that would happen here. Minute by minute, second by second he knew exactly what would come. Because they always were the same; the events that took place in this odd trick of his mind. They never changed; no matter what he would do she would always say the same thing before she died: "The one who hides behind lies and masks has already lost all of his battles."

These words refused to leave his mind. They would sit there for hours, days; refusing to leave him alone. Creating doubts and fears. Making him question his actions, his goals, himself.

Maybe this was her punishment for him. Maybe it was her sweet revenge that destroyed him from inside and like a worm eats an apple, slowly but surely ate his mind and soul.

This wasn't the revenge that would hit you in all its blaze and glory and destroy you in a matter of seconds. This revenge tore you apart, drove you insane, step by step, little by little. And when you finally thought that you had forgotten it, it would strike back and you would be crushed and broken again.

He is the master of lies and illusions. It was he who managed to deceive all Soul Society. And yet he became a victim of stupid words that managed to drive him insane.

But the most important thing – it was all her doing. How could someone who didn't possess any power at all shatter his motivation, his logics - shatter him? That stupid woman managed to break past the walls he thought were unbreakable.

Aizen frowned. This was not him. He didn't fall prey to anyone – he was the one who was the hunter, not the prey.

He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, when he would open his eyes she would be there.

It was time… when he opened his eyes he saw her.


	2. Crimson Sands

She was there, in front of him, as always, her dark green eyes staring at him. Her eyes were empty; glass-like, as though she was just a porcelain doll. No emotions were showed on her face, nothing. Her gaze was blank. As if there was no mind, no emotions in her, she was as tough she was empty. She opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out.

A strong gust of wind hit him – it was coming.

There it is, standing behind her. Its big form casting a huge shadow over her tiny frame. But she just continued to stand there, looking somewhere far away.

This was the moment at which Aizen should have broken; he should have called her, shouted at her, yelled at her to run away. But not this time. He had seen this dream far too many times; he knew that nothing would change so he just continued to watch.

The shadow grows something akin to a claw from its body. It slowly places his claw on the girls forehead and drags it down circling her eyes, nose, lips on its way before it stopping on her throat.

Small red lines are left by the claw. Thin streaks of blood run down the girls face and fall down to the golden sands beneath her.

The shadow took the claw away from her throat. Blood quickly flowed down to the sand, painting it crimson.

Another strong, burning gust of wind hit his face, but Aizen stayed still despite the burning sensation in his eyes and heavy feeling in his lungs.

The shadow lifted its claw, took a swing and ripped the girls' throat open. Blood gushed down onto the sand.

The shadow disappeared, the wind went away, and everything looked the same again. The endless wasteland looked as if nothing had happened seconds before. Only the crimson sand and the girl lying on it remained. She gasped and whimpered as blood rushed through her hands from the wound and disappeared on the sand. "The one who hides behind lies and masks has already lost all of his battles," she hissed as she died.

The minute the last word escaped her mouth, he woke up.

She was dead; there was no way around it. She has been dead for over 200 years and yet she still managed to get inside his head, reading him like an open book, shattering his sanity, questioning things that should not be questioned.

And sometimes Aizen could not help but ask himself if she had really died. Perhaps she had never existed in the first place and this was all his sword's doing, a twisted game that Kyōka Suigetsu played with him as easily as she did with others.

He closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. This dream would not bother him again for a year but the words would not leave him alone for a while.


End file.
